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Monday, April 26, 2010

Amelia has taken to standing in all manner of baskets and bowls around our house. She will stand in them for extended periods of time looking as pleased as pie.

in large baskets......

in very small baskets...

in wooden bowls.....

and her new favorite..... behind the curtains I recently put up....

I am really starting to enjoy motherhood.... well I should say that I am FINALLY starting to enjoy motherhood. I feel like I have been operating on autopilot for soooo long. These days I find myself giggling at her antics, singing when she is screaming, and relaxing when she is testing the limits.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

My dear husband left the sprinkler on last night and this was what greeted me when I opened the door this morning.

Oh my poor lilacs! They were frozen solid. There was at least two inches of ice around every branch and blade of grass. It was freakish looking and yet beautiful at the same time. I had to laugh although I was deeply concerned wether or not my beloved shrub was going to recover from the shock. Thankfully by the end of the day it looked relatively normal - aside from a few cracked branches.

Later that day, after I had put Amelia down for her nap, a new friend brought her horse over and we spent the better part of an hour brushing it and chatting. I am ever so thankful for this new friend. She has such a sweet, gentle disposition and she is incredibly easy to talk to. I have been struggling to make friends with some of the other RCMP wives, so it has been nice to relax in this relationship. I will post some pictures of me riding her horse at some point.

Friday, April 23, 2010

I haven't updated this blog in a really loooong time and for that I apologize. I have been fairly preoccupied with the following things.....

1) finally framing some prints from our trip around the world...

2) Putting my collection of shells and other ocean finds into large glass jars.

3) Hanging curtain rods and curtains and helping my hubby assemble our newest purchase (a lovely dark IKEA desk. Prior to purchasing this desk we were using two filing cabinets topped by a slab of wood as a desk.

4) Spray painting a mirror frame. I plant to transform it from a dated gungy gold to a modern high gloss black.

5)Cleaning up the chicken coop and weeding rocks out of our gardens. Amelia is particularly good at taking the rocks out of my wheelbarrow and throwing them back into the garden (silly, adorable girl)

6) Spending one fabulous evening and day with some long lost girlfriends in the big city of Vancouver. What a delightful time we had... swimming, soaking, chatting, munching on yummy things, walking, shopping, trying on make-up, sampling wine, gorging ourselves on a chocolate buffet, dressing up, giggling in our beds, applying nail polish and mud masks... being silly and serious, going to bed late, sleeping in and exploring Granville Island.

We hadn't seen each other in many years and yet we all chatted away like we had never been apart.It was refreshing and fun to catch up on their lives and fun to just be all together again. I think that we should make it an annual event.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Have I ever mentioned how much I love painting old furniture? Yesterday I tackled a couple old, mismatched pieces with a roller and a bucket of white paint. I decided on white because it is most versatile. I would love to use turquoise and red but I would end up having to repaint them a couple months later when I moved them into a different room. I move my furniture around a lot and red chairs would not looks so hot in my kitchen. Nevertheless, I still don't know how I feel about stark white - it looks so pretty in people's homes but I don;t know if it suits me. I am painting my brother's castoff desk, some filing cabinets, Nathaniel's old toy chest, an old childhood chair and a side table my parents picked up ages ago.

With all the white that has been going on around here (ie. in my hair, on my clothes and all over my skin) I had to laugh when I woke up to three inches of fresh snow.

When it melted Nathaniel and I went for a drive and saw all sorts of marvelous things.....

1) Mountain blue birds flitting from post to post

2) A turquoise river edged with ice

3) A very large bull staring me down

4) Cacti stuck to the cuffs of my jeans

5) Wolf tracks

Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died so i was not able to take any photos. Thankfully, due to the glorious nature of google images, I was able to share this stunning shot with you. Such an incredibly beautiful bird.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I can hardly believe it - my sleep anarchist went to bed at 7pm this evening. I was shocked and thrilled to say the least. Last night she went to bed at 7:30pm and slept till 7am this morning - only waking up briefly twice during the night. For the past 7 months I had become accustomed to being woken up nearly every 45 minutes throughout the night. Needless to say, I was a walking zombie with sore nipples.

What changed you ask? Well two weeks ago I hit the wall - literally, figuratively and symbolically. I was DONE! I could barely function, I was constantly crying, on the verge of depression and too exhausted to enjoy my daughter - let alone my husband or life. I was venting on facebook to a friend and she recommended a book called "Healthy sleep habits, healthy child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. I did a bit of research online to see what others had to say about the book and then decided to buy it myself. I was very skeptical but desperate so I followed what Dr. Marc said and put my baby to bed at 7:00 after lots of soothing activities (dark room, cuddles, a warm sippy cup of milk and her giraffe blanket). Then, I put her soother in, laid her down in her crib (awake), walked out of the room and waited for the screaming and protesting to begin. Not only did she not cry - she was asleep within 10 minutes. When she woke up a couple hours later I put her soother in and laid her down and walked out. She cried for a couple minutes and then fell asleep again. The next day she napped incredibly well and was a much happier baby. Honestly, I can't believe it is working. I keep expecting things to go sideways but perhaps they won't. I used to dread going to bed but now I actually look forward to it.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I love the early evening when the sun is just starting to set and everything is winding down for the day. I especially love this time of day in the summer because there are always dragonflies darting about, barbeque's cooking dinner and people watering their gardens.

2. If health wasn't an issue, what food could you live off of?

Um cheesecake, eclairs, and Cornish pastries. Hmmm yummy!

3. If you could have one wish granted (besides wishing for more wishes), what would it be?

To be able to build my dream home by the ocean.

4. What's one thing that you get teased about a lot?

The words that I "make up".

5. If you could choose one movie, book, or TV show to spend your life in, which would you pick? What type of character would you be?

Honestly, I have no idea. I am quite happy to live the life I have.

6. If you could have one talent that you don't already have, what would it be?

Skilled pianist

7.If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?

At the moment I have sights on Tuscany, Italy, France and Morocco.

8. If you were an awesome singer, which genre would you sing?

Probably folk, something alternative and acoustic.

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, what would it be?

Um - Pier 1 imports or IKEA!!!!!!

10. If you could live in any point in time, when would it be?

Oh, most likely the 1800's (when Jane Austen lived). I love how they dressed, spoke and interacted with one another.

11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be one color, what would it be?

At the moment I think I would go for .... plum

12. If you were one of the seven dwarf's, which one would you be?(Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, or Dopey)

I would have to say "happy" - although sleep deprivation has made me more like "grumpy" these days.

13. What's the last album you listened to?

Crystal Lewis - Hymns: my life ( took me back to some great memories with my friend in Esperanza)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I have always enjoyed reading but I rarely read a book twice unless it is incredibly good and satisfies a number of specific requirements (ie. is filled with profound insights, makes me cry and changes my life). One of my favorite books is a small hardbound book called "gift from the sea" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I found it in a discard pile in a library when I was a teenager. I have cherished it over the years and have always given it a special place on my bookshelf. The copy I have was published in 1955 so it looks rather vintage. I will have to take a picture of it one of these days. I have lost count of how many times I have read this book, perhaps every year since I found it. Here is a quote from the chapter I read today:

"For to be a woman is to have interests and duties, raying out in all directions from the central mother-core, like spokes from the hub of a wheel. The pattern of our lives is essentially circular. We must be open to all points of the compass; husband, children, friends, home, community; stretched out, exposed, sensitive like a spider's web to each breeze that blows, to each call that comes. How difficult for us, then, to achieve a balance in the midst of these contradictory tensions, and yet how necessary for the proper functioning of our lives".

I love how she examines life from the viewpoint of a woman; its seasons, its challenges its joys. She is a mother of five children and every year she takes two weeks to stay in a cabin on a island to reflect and to write. In her book "gift from the sea" she examines the changing seasons of one's life and compares them to the various shells that she finds discarded on the beach. It is a marvelous read.